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A sssssteaming hot version of a musical standard reimagined, daringly choreographed and exquisitely performed by a couple ripened into adulthood, no longer the sweet young Canadian things who so charmingly won Olympic gold in Vancouver.

Anyone wondering how the duo could possibly coax innovation out of an overused skating chestnut now has the answer: Like so.

Dramatic, intimate, exhibitionistic, their overtly sensual interpretation of Carmen almost brought the house to climax at the WFCU Arena here Saturday evening.

From those who had clearly taken a preview glimpse at a practice video posted on YouTube, there were expectant wolf-whistles and hubba-hubbas as Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir stepped into their opening pose, before the music began.

Seconds afterwards, Virtue had her hand placed on Moir’s nether regions. Then he brushed his fingers suggestively along her inner thigh as she arched her back, as if yearningly, executing a lower-body move more often seen wrapped around a stripper’s pole.

“Is it sexy or is it not sexy?” coach-choreographer Marina Zueva demanded of reporters afterwards. “It is impossible to do anything too sexy. It is sexy because it is Carmen.”

Well, Carmen as it might have been staged by Bob Fosse, with all his signature pelvic thrusts and the sinuous slither.

There’s never been a Carmen like this before. It is voluptuous in presentation and bedazzling in athleticism. Indeed, between the breathtaking gold-winning performance and the medal presentation, Virtue stepped aside to demurely vomit, such was the physical and emotional exertion demanded of the program.

“I don’t think you can do Carmen without that element,” said Virtue, whose black costume bodice was slashed to the belly button. “There’s such a sexuality and, also, the rawness. That’s what we tried to portray. None of our movements are without purpose.”

And such movements: flamboyant, complex lifts; risky footwork, cutting edge spins and twizzles; blurring speed, Virtue with her legs wrapped around Moir’s neck, Moir with his face pressed against her abdomen.

None of it recycled from routines past, all of it exciting and stylish.

“Obviously, our take on Carmen, there is sexuality to it,” said Moir. “We worked a lot with a modern dancer choreographer and tried to make the moves more natural. It kind of really spoke to us.”

Another Carmen, vastly different — the PG version — was performed just before Virtue and Moir took to the ice, by Italian national champions Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, who claimed silver here. But theirs was mush by contrast, bland —mangiacake, actually.

The Canadians soared away from the Italians on the scoreboard, after coming into the free dance, shockingly, just one-hundredth of a point ahead. In Friday’s short dance segment, Moir got all tangled up in a lift, had a face-full of skirt. (“Yeah, that’s the story of my life day-to-day,” he’d joked. Virtue shot back: “On the ice.”)

Free dance score: 104.32

Overall score: 169.41.

Zueva is confident these programs together could break the 200-point ceiling by the end of the season.

“All elements new this year, very difficult, so hard,” she said, with her thick Russian accent. “They do change position lift, it never happen before. But they’re Olympic champions, they’re world champions, they have to bring something new in the sport.”

Virtue actually had one obvious misstep during the routine, a stub of the foot where she fought to stay upright. Zueva shrugged it off. “Mistake? Who don’t do anything, no mistake.”

Translation: No risk, no glory.

Some of the Canadian duo’s lifts might actually flirt with the edges of what’s legal in ice dancing, especially one sequence where Virtue jumps into Moir’s arms.

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